AFTER THE SPRING SHOWER

An Original Oil Painting executed en plein air by Fine Artist Jeremiah Jolliff

This painting is testament to how perfectly things can come together seemingly on nothing more than a mere whim. There was so much activity that led up to the creation of this study weather wise. It was a perfect spring day and rather warm, when suddenly a rain shower leapt overhead and caused a downpour. The whole field and the trees where laden with a thick veil of dripping wet vitality. After the rain, there developed such a perfect composition. Everything was broken down into thirds with field, trees, and sky all mimicking one another in lock-step.

In Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting he mentions the use of a viewfinder. He states: “I have found that beginners in landscape painting have a difficult time during the first few weeks out-of-doors, in selecting and arranging their subject or motif. It is difficult to see what has, and what has not pictorial properties. Beginners are bewildered by the wealth of inspirational material that surrounds them, stretching away in all directions to infinite distances.”

For me personally, i am constantly invited to catch that massive mountain of volumous bubbling heap of midwestern cumulonimbus. Of course, that symbol of power will most likely always allude me because there just simply is not a canvas large enough to capture the immensity of that supernatural ripsnorter.

will continue to solve the compositional problem when painting outdoors. The seemingly mundane suddenly becomes and interesting scene with the usage of this incredibly simple device. Magic happens when nature is framed simply and the viewer’s eye is placed subjectively into nature’s cornucopia.